How BIG is the WORLD?: Soweto, South Africa

Monday, July 18, 2011

Soweto, South Africa

11/12 JUNE 2011

SOUTH AFRICA – Country number 14 –SOUTH AFRICA

SOWETO

An easy arrival into South Africa, getting a 3 day transit to tide me over till Mozambique. Arriving at Jo’burg’s City Park, all information tells me that Johannesburg is dangerous so I go with an offered pickup from Lebo’s Soweto Backpackers and await a pick up outside the Wimpy restaurant in the complex. And I wait, and wait. 1 hour later I am gathered up and taken directly to Orlando West, a suburb of Soweto to check in and find a fun environs with a great vibe here.

@ Lebos

I sign up for the home cooked dinner on offer here to save wandering out looking for dinner later. Free wifi here so I get to skype a couple of times with Terry and with Lynda Blanche. The guys here are all amused to wave to Australia when I ‘m chatting. I also sign up for a bicycle tour of Soweto tomorrow – a four hour eco-friendly treadley ride around Soweto suburbs all in glorious sunshine, discovering many places that would be hard to find on your own, let alone Soweto being a no go area for tourists.

Orlando's Soccer City Stadium

There’s the Orlando cooling towers where some choose to bungy jump, Soccer City Stadium and of course the memorial to Students being fired upon during Apartheid protests. We get a kuta for lunch – a Soweto version of Bunny Chow, which I first saw in Botswana; this is a quarter loaf of white bread hollowed out to hold a filling, todays has chips, an egg, a slice of luncheon meat. Totally bad food but extra yummy cause it’s freshly made and we’re all hungry after 2 hours of bike riding! Then off to Vilakazi St, the home of Nelson Mandela AND Desmond Tutu. We also visit a shebeen to sample the beer and another backyard bar, all the time being greeted by little kids who are so amused by us passing by. Another lazy afternoon sitting in the sun before packing up and getting back to Park City to catch the night bus to Maputo, Mozambique. Park City is a cold place to wait for a bus – thank god for airline blankets!

One of many organisations for AIDS orphans

FACT: Sadly, the funeral of Albertina Sisulu, was yesterday, 11 June 2011. Albertina is considered the mother of South Africa's liberation struggle during Apartheid and thousands of mourners attended her funeral held in the Orlando football stadium, Soweto following a week of national mourning, during which flags were flown at half-mast. Albertina Sisulu was 92 and died at her home.
d South African President Jacob Zuma attedned her funeral and was quaoted as saying "One of the most steadfast, dignified and disciplined pillars of our struggle has fallen. An era has ended."
Sisulu's husband was anti-apartheid leader Walter Sisulu (dec), imprisoned with Nelson Mandela for many years. In his book, "Long Walk to Freedom," Mandela said the couple's home during the fight against apartheid was "a mecca for activists. It was a warm (and) welcoming place," Mandela described Albertina as having "a wise and wonderful presence."
Albertina Sisulu said she never regretted her life struggles. She is quoted as saying "Although politics has given me a rough life, there is absolutely nothing I regret about what I have done and what has happened to me and my family. Instead, I have been strengthened and feel more of a woman than I would otherwise have felt if my life was different."